Snape's worst memory

[Karen]

No: HPFGUIDX 81163

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "feetmadeofclay" 
<feetmadeofclay at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "yahtzee55555" 
<Yahtzee63 at a...> 
> wrote:
> >But I still have trouble saying that it is his WORST 
> > memory. The memory that causes you the most pain isn't 
> > necessarily the same as the memory that you most want to keep 
> > secret. 
> 
> Golly: But Rowling said it was.  She titled the chapter "Snape's 
> Worst Memory". She could have entitled it "A very bad 
> memory"; "Snape's Miserable Day", "Snape's Outburst"; "Dueling 
James" 
> or a million other titles.  (I guess "Snape's Grudge" was already 
> taken...)  Then we would be left to ponder why that memory was put 
in 
> the Pensive. 
> 
> If Snape had said it there might be better claim for the idea that 
he 
> is exaggerating - focusing unduly on an embarrassing rather than 
> traumatic memory. But I can't take Rowling's titles for her 
chapters 
> as hyperbole. Otherwise I would never be able to believe anything 
she 
> tells us when she's speaking as the author. 
> 
>  Are we going to give the authorial voice, this same treatment 
over 
> the whole series?
> 
> > >CLIO: How is that not
> > > worse than his school rival embarassing him what 20 years ago?
> > > 
> > > That made me wonder why Snape didn't remove that. 
> 
> Golly:  Why should a grown man be embarrassed about crying as a 
young 
> child, while he watched one parent abuse the other. He was uspset 
> about his enviroment and the treatment of his mother. 
> 
>  Who wouldn't be? That is nothing to be embarrassed about. I don't 
> see crying as weakness. Would you think it was still embarrassing 
if 
> he was a girl and not a little boy? 
> 
> Golly

All of this begs a question I posed a while back that got 
overlooked; if Snape *removed* this memory and put into the 
pensieve, why was he so upset with Harry looking at it? Presumably, 
by taking it out of his mind (literally?), it helped him to be more 
objective and less angry with the son of James Potter, therefore 
better able to teach him one on one. Okay, here's my question once 
again. IF THE MEMORY WAS NOT IN HIS MIND, BUT IN THE PENSIEVE, WHY 
WAS HE SO UPSET? Presumably, he wouldn't remember what he put in the 
bowl, or at the very least, it would not make him that angry! I 
realize it is difficult to figure out how a fictitious magical 
object works, but the only reasonable explanation for him 
withdrawing the memories is to *not* remember them. 

Maybe I'm slipping a cog, here, but I don't understand this whole 
set up. I understood how it worked in Dumbledore's office, but he 
said he used the pensieve to look at things more objectively. We can 
only assume that Dumbledore gave Snape the pensieve to use to help 
him be less prejudice working with Harry.

Karen